I last read it in the year 1991. It was after borrowing a copy from my friend. I was familiar with the classics and my Post-graduation texts but not Things fall apart.
I was left with a feeling of immense sadness and desolation about the wasting of an individual, the subjugation of a civilization, and the onslaught of the colonizer. It reminded me of my childhood fantasies. “The tender yams which are dug out after the harvest season, cooked slowly over the fire in the fields and eaten after dipping them in palm oil were the sweetest. They tasted better than those cooked at home.” Such words establish the mood of the novel in the first few chapters.
Of course there are the larger questions as to the meaning of culture and the definition of civilization. The white man believed that there was only one civilization and only one religion. Therefore the question of pitting one against the other, to determine the need of each did not arise. The one who had the might and the power emerged victorious. In the process the other was decimated with a cold blooded disdain. This scene must have been played out in countless villages across Africa or even across the world. Okonkwo’s sense of wounded pride and humiliation does not agree with this mood. He is a fierce warrior and a fiercely proud fellow. He stands up and avenges himself. His suicide highlights the note of resignation in a once highly individualistic and rebellious Umuofia clan. Things have definitely changed. Things have fallen apart. This is the falling apart of a world, a civilization, a myth and an aura of seclusion.
In the history of fiction, Things fall apart is regarded as a milestone novel for unravelling many of the views or positions that were or are taken for granted. The supremacy of the West, the preaching of the Gospel and the missionaries, the narratives of knowledge and enlightenment and the establishing of the ‘Other’ in a perspective of how Edward Said speaks of it in his book ‘Orientalism.’ The author makes use of the language of the colonizer -‘English’ to narrate the struggle of the people. The narrative is enriched by the liberal use of proverbs, fables, and stories from African society. The effect is mesmerizing and the author succeeds in taking the reader with him into the heart and soul of Africa. One could say no study of fiction is complete without a reference to this seminal novel which has transcended the confines of a continent and truly become a proverbial work of humanity. ( To be continued)